In just a few weeks one of the biggest social events of the year will happen. The Quillayute Valley Scholarship Fund will once again offer two days of amazing community spirit raising money for Forks grads for further education.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of this one of a kind event. The humble beginnings started when a few community members got together to have dinners and raise a little money for FHS students who needed a little help with college. They created the Quillayute Valley Scholarship Fund.

Four years in, in April 1968, an impromptu auction on the local radio station, KVAC, netted the Quillayute Valley Scholarship fund $2,300. The auction began when a small box of a collection of things given to Bruce Elliott, one of the station’s owners, for his birthday was put up for bid on the air.

The spur of the moment event went on for two days and almost 13 hours each day. People started calling in and bidding and then others started donating more items. Everything from cat sitting to a dump truck was put up for auction over those two days.

Afterwards KVAC commended the Forks residents for the enthusiastic response, both the buyers and those who donated. The radio staff later said the response was so overwhelming, if they hadn’t got so tired, they probably could have gone on for days.

Area residents at the time felt the event really pulled the community together and that the money raised was great but the community spirit was priceless. The Quillayute Valley Scholarship Fund had become the Quillayute Valley Scholarship Auction.

Those that participated in that first auction would probably be astounded by the amount of items and the amount of money that the event raises today, to date over $1 million. The Forks Forum will be creating a special section for this event’s half-century milestone. Anyone with pictures or stories that they would like to share is asked to e-mail them to the Forum at cbaron@forksforum.com or drop them by the Forum office at 490 S. Forks Ave.   

This year’s auction is set to take place on March 15-16 at Forks High School.